HEALTH bosses were last night accused of putting lives at risk after refusing to reveal the hospitals where a deadly new form of the C.diff superbug has killed three people.

The ribotype 332 strain of the bacterial infection has struck at two Scottish hospitals in the same health board area – the first time it has been recorded anywhere.

The Daily Record has learned the board involved are NHS Fife, who have two main hospitals – the Victoria in Kirkcaldy and the Queen Margaret in Dunfermline.

But Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish Government last night refused to confirm any details of the location of the outbreak.

And it has taken five months since the bug claimed its first victim for the cases to be made public.

Furious Michelle Stewart, whose mother-in-law Sarah McGinty died of C.diff at Vale of Leven hospital in Dumbarton in 2008, says the secrecy could put patients in danger.

She said: “People have a right to know. It is putting lives at risk not to give as much detail as soon as possible.

“I think it is a disgrace this new outbreak has been kept under wraps for months and I am furious the public aren’t being told where these people have died.

“The biggest asset we have in the fight to stop these infections is the public. Hand washing, for example, is one of the biggest things we can do to stop the bugs spreading.

“At the Vale of Leven, the first death was in 2007 but the first report wasn’t until 2008. This time the first death was in 2012 but we aren’t hearing about it until May 2013.

Sarah McGinty died of C.diff in 2008 (Image: Collect)

“Where are the lessons that we are supposed to have learned?”

Bacteriology expert Professor Hugh Pennington was puzzled by the decision to go public but not name the hospitals.

He said: “They have set the hares running by saying they have found this new ribotype and that it has done bad things to people. Yet they are only telling us half the story.”

C.diff is easily spread and affects the digestive system. It causes diarrhoea and stomach cramps but can have serious complications.

An inquiry into the Vale of Leven outbreak in which 18 people died is being held and Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie MSP said the latest deaths made learning lessons all the more important.

She said: “It raises serious infection control questions and I am concerned that the name of the health board is being withheld.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: “Keeping details secret only stokes up fears when dealing with the public. We need full transparency to ensure patients retain full confidence in the NHS.”

Doctors throughout Scotland have been put on alert after an investigation into the outbreak was announced yesterday.

HPS said two patients at the same hospital died – one in December and the second in January. A third patient in the same health board area died last month.

All were seriously ill with underlying conditions.

But the NHS agency would not disclose the hospital locations, citing patient confidentiality.

A statement said: “This strain does not change the existing level of risk to the public from C.diff and there are no additional precautions or areas of concern which would require this information to be publicised.”